Trump's clampdown on foreign students will cost US universities billions
American universities fear the Trump administration's purge of foreign students could trigger a cash crisis.
More than 1,000 students, from an estimated 160 colleges, have had their visas or legal status revoked, in some cases because of their views on Gaza, according to the latest figures.
But in others they are facing deportation for minor criminal offences and even traffic violations.
While many of the cases are being fought in the courts, colleges fear that applications could plummet from overseas.
According to NAFSA: Association of International Educators 1.1 million international students at US colleges and universities contributed $43.8billion (£33billion) to the American economy during the 2023-2024 academic year.
They also supported more than 378,000 jobs.
But the landscape is vastly different now. Given the hatchet the administration is taking to university spending, a dramatic fall in applications from well-heeled foreign students is the last thing American colleges need.
'The thing with foreign students is they pay full freight,' Christopher Galdieri, professor of politics at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, told The Telegraph.
'When you get into graduate programmes you have folks from all over the world who come here and by and large they are paying the full tuition for graduate school.
'If you are an American, most doctoral programs pay you a stipend to attend them. Your tuition is covered by a scholarship or a fellowship or something.
'I went to the University of Minnesota and just in my programme you know there were folks from Turkey, there were folks from China, there were folks from South Korea, and they were paying their way in a way that we Americans were not.
'These folk are an enormous factor in the budgets of every research university in the country. This is going way, way beyond Columbia and Harvard.'
With the administration demanding Harvard hands over a list of foreign students, there is a sense that they are no longer welcome in the US, especially if other colleges are made to fall into line.
'You're making it incredibly hostile for them to come here,' Prof Galdieri added.
'You're making their existence precarious because, as we've seen from this administration you know having a visa is no guarantee like if you have a visa when you get up in the morning there's no guarantee you're still going to have that visa come lunchtime.'
Harvard is in an especially invidious position.
While Columbia University bowed to pressure from the Trump administration, Harvard did not. Already its $2billion federal funding has been frozen, and its charitable status is under threat.
The administration has told America's oldest university to disclose its sources of foreign funding.
Last week Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanded it provided information about the 'illegal and violent activities' of its foreign students by the end of the month.
If it fails to comply, Ms Noem threatened to halt visas for its foreign students, who account for about 27 per cent of the total graduate and undergraduate population.
Other universities have also warned of the consequences of driving away foreign students.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology saw nine visas revoked and its president, Sally Kornbluth, said it would cost the college global talent.
'MIT is an American university, proudly so – but we would be gravely diminished without the students and scholars who join us from other nations,' she wrote in a letter to members of the college.
Moody's, a credit rating agency, said it was pessimistic about what lies ahead and rewrote its 2025 outlook for colleges, changing its prediction from stable to negative.
It said that the potential for reductions or eliminations of visas for international students, or a decline in the appeal of the US to international students would present difficulties for the portion of the sector reliant on these students, who generally provide higher net tuition and boost enrolment at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
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